World Bank President Selection Process Heats Up On Lack Of Announcement

4/13/2012 2:42 PM ET

The World Bank presidency is becoming a highly coveted position, with nominees facing rising heat in competition for the top job.

U.S. nominee Jim Yong Kim was the last of the three candidates to be interviewed by the Board of Governors this week as interviews were conducted Monday-Wednesday, a spokesperson for the World Bank told RTTNews on Friday.

"We don't know when we're going to make the announcement," said the spokesperson, referring to the timing of when the board will announce the new president of the World Bank. "For planning purposes, the announcement will probably be on Monday but the time is unknown. There will be no press conference, so the announcement will most likely be in a press release."

Global public-health expert Jim Yong Kim is the frontrunner and stands a good chance of winning the World Bank presidency. However, he is the first U.S. nominee to ever face competition for the job.

Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, the Nigerian finance minister and former senior World Bank official, is adding some challenge to the process. She recently challenged the traditional U.S. control of the selection as out-of-date and garnered international support—despite her own rocky tenure in her home government.

Although U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian Finance Minister Anton Siluanov have awarded their support to the Korean-American medical doctor, anthropologist, and President of Dartmouth College, many still have questions about his ability to do the job.

According to some media sources, the rest of the world is not convinced of Kim's credentials for the World Bank's number one spot, saying he is not a trained economist, unlike the other two candidates.

"If I were entrusted with the responsibility of leading this institution, you would find in me someone who asks hard questions about the status quo and is not afraid to challenge existing orthodoxies," Kim said in a statement to the development lenders' board of directors, released by the Treasury Department.

The third candidate for the World Bank presidency was Jose Antonio Ocampo, a former finance minister of Colombia and economics professor at Columbia University in New York. The World Bank spokesperson confirmed to RTTNews on Friday that Ocampo has dropped out of the race.